This is just what I needed...

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you till it seems you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe
(copied from Karen Russell's blog - her really cool Valentine's story...click here - it's inspired me to talk about my own Valentine-y story.).

This whole week has been very stressful...talks of layoffs in my city (which would directly affect Adam as a police officer); health concerns; scheduling conflicts; work; homework; Valentine productions...but that quote right there is just what I needed to remind me of how I roll.

My husband and I have been just 2 of the most fortunate people in the world. This marriage has just been full of sheer luck and opportunity. We got married and started this wonderful life and it hasn't really stopped being wonderful....some of you have heard this story before...

We got married in 2000 and while on our honeymoon, Adam got a phone call from the NYPD to join them - the Police Academy started 5 days after we got home to MA so we did what any sensible person would do - we packed our stuff up and headed out to NYC to follow Adam's dream of becoming a police officer. I got pregnant with Dylan 2 minutes after we cut the cake at the wedding reception and had him 9 months later...we were lucky enough to live with my parents so that I could stay home with Dylan. We lived in NYC during 9/11 and endured the sadness with the other 11 million people who lived there with us. One year later, Angelica came along. Adam decided that he wanted to come home to MA (to raise our kids with a chance of seeing real grass). So we came back here in Feb. 2003. I got my old job back; he got a job as a police officer at Beth Israel Deaconess - all before we left NYC. We stayed with his mom and dad for 5 months and then bought our home. We moved in - got the cats we left with my parents and got 2 dogs a week after we moved in. I stayed at my old job for just over a year and then got lucky to land a job at HarborOne Credit Union (where I still am) - just after I got that job, Adam got laid off from the hospital but had a spot on the Brockton Police Department. He went into the Academy just before I had Melody (who was very unexpected - she is the reason why birth control companies don't say that their pills are 100% effective).

Life hasn't slowed down for us in the almost 9 years we've been married. This week, I have felt like it's come to a screeching halt with the possibilities of our country's failing economy finally reaching my front porch. I think the uncertainty of it all is what bothers me most (I've had a headache since Tuesday). Even if my lifelong streak of good fortune continues, surely we will have friends who will be affected by the city's cutbacks. And that part won't feel so good.

But that quote at the beginning of this post is what I needed to get me out of my own skin - out of this feeling of uncertainty and what feels like a downward spiral...holding on for dear life - holding on....and feeling like I'll never let go. (thanks Josh Downs!!!) I'm officially happier than I was 20 minutes ago...